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That Burning Feeling got that loving feeling Friday night when the Vancouver International Film Festival named the made-in-Vancouver sex comedy one of two winners of their prize for Best Canadian Feature Film. The directorial debut of veteran Vancouver producer Jason James tells the story of a shallow guy who becomes a better man when he’s diagnosed with an STD. The award was split with Jeff Barnaby’s filmmaking debut Rhymes for Young Ghouls — a drama about the lingering impact of residential schools on Canada’s First Nations. A statement from the jury praised That Burning Feeling for “a witty, smart and highly articulated script, a talented cast and beautiful production” and said the movie, “makes a wonderful self-deprecating portrait of Vancouver with its condo maniacs, yoga lovers, community activists and other odd characters.”

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HOPE SPRINGS: It’s respectable for evening charity galas to raise $460,000. Doing so at a lunchtime fashion show scores ‘A’ for achievement. The B.C. Cancer Foundation reportedly did that when jewelry-class scion Marcella Cusano chaired and Ben Yeung’s Peterson Group firm and foundation sponsored the Hope Couture event in the Fairmont Pacific Rim hotel recently. A largely female audience helped fund the scanning, robotics and microscopy equipment needed to identify and treat more complex breast cancers. “The bottom line is that we want to cure more women,” BCCA oncologist and clinical investigator Dr. Karen Gelmon said. Many would wish to achieve that aim as expeditiously as veteran stylist Tracey Pincott sent out models in ensembles from the Bacci and Boboli stores. Or as elegantly as Satsuki-Kai traditional Japanese group members who performed a routine modelled on cherry blossom festivities.

Did the Mayans predict the demise of the Vancouver Playhouse Theatre Company? They should have, because for more than a decade pretty much everyone else saw it coming. The death of the storied theatre company — not to be confused with the venue of the same name — was the city’s biggest performing arts news of 2012.

Blackbird was flying high Friday night after winning the award for Best Canadian Feature at the 31st annual Vancouver International Film Festival and taking home the $10,000 jury prize. The first feature by Nova Scotia director Jason Buxton hit a chord with jurors with a beyond timely exploration of the issue of cyberbullying and a look at the life of a creative kid caught up in the corrections system.

The Vancouver International Film Festival may not survive the closure of the Empire Theatres Granville 7 cinema, festival director Alan Franey said Tuesday. “They’ve been a good partner in making it affordable for us,” Franey said. “I don’t want to sound alarmist, but I think it’s perfectly possible that we would say ‘Look, we can’t do the festival any more’ ... That’s definitely a threat and it’s something that we will overcome, but I’m not sure exactly how yet.”

Alan Franey, Festival Director and CEO revealed Canadian director Deepa Mehta's film Midnight's Children to screen at opening gala. Alongside, a first for the festival in hosting two musical concert series.

Alan Franey, Festival Director and CEO revealed Canadian director Deepa Mehta's film Midnight's Children to screen at opening gala. Alongside, a first for the festival in hosting two musical concert series.

The 31st annual Vancouver International Film Festival opens on Sept. 27 with Midnight’s Children, a film based on the novel of the same name by Salman Rushdie. Rushdie not only wrote the screenplay for the film by Canada’s Deepa Mehta, he also contributed the first-person narration for the story about two children, a Hindu and Muslim, switched at birth at midnight on Aug. 15, 1947, the day of India’s independence from Britain.

Five B.C. film industry unions urged their members, including directors and actors, not to attend the Vancouver Film Festival's opening gala after-party Thursday night because the venue's owner, Rocky Mountaineer, locked out its 108 attendants three months ago

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